A Night Of Delays - Banstead Athletic vs. Colliers Wood United

Moments before kick off at Merland Rise. Note the fog.

I try to catch Colliers Wood a couple of times a season and try to couple this with seeing a new ground. To tick both these boxes I travelled to Tattenham Corner for The Wood's match at Banstead Athletic. The home side are close to the relegation zone and so are looking for a vital three points against the inconsistent visitors. The evening does not begin smoothly as emergency engineering works lead to major delays. Then when I arrive the floodlights are off and kick off is delayed by fifteen minutes due to a missing linesman.

Colliers Wood on the attack in the first half.

Colliers Wood dominate possession in the opening exchanges and manage to win a few corners but fail to do anything with them. As the half goes on Banstead come in to the game more and create the first chance. A quick break sees the forward beat the keeper but his effort is cleared off the line. Colliers Wood then win a free kick just outside the box when the forwards powerful run is brought to an abrupt end. Some how the free kick finds its way in to the back of the net to put the Woods one up. There are no further clear cut chances as the fog rolls in and the visitors lead at the break. 

The Colliers Wood goal.

As the referee emerges he appears to be taken aback by the worsening conditions. He decides to restart the game but after five minutes the linesman complains that he can't see the far touchline. The game is stopped and the referee gives it another ten minutes but then decides to abandon the game. As the picture below shows, it did get pretty bad.

The scene moments before the referee stopped the game.

The ground is a fifteen minute walk from Tattenham Corner station. Trains depart from London Bridge and Victoria and take just under an hour. There were no pubs on the walk to the ground. The clubhouse is a decent size and has Sky Sports. The one disappointing thing about the ground was that there was no burger bar!. Despite this I enjoyed my brief visit and the programme is also worth a mention for it's brilliant content.

The stand where most of the crowd were located.